“I’m still a woman, Respect. You know I looked up to you for a long time. My father always praised you. I wanted to learn from you… to make him proud so he could boast about me the way he did about you.”
Crush didn’t answer the phone so Ree hung up.
“But it’s like you can hardly stand me. Like you’re scared to be around me. Why is that?”
“I’m not scared of shit, Jayde,” Ree corrected. “I don’t really have time for this. But trust me, it’s not you. When it comes to business I don’t believe it should entail too much interaction. The day we decided to do business together is the day you should’ve let all of that big brother, looking up to me shit go.”
I don’t want to fuck the dog shit out of my big brother, Jayde thought as she eyed his sexiness and the way he filled out his designer threads but she reasoned with a, “But you don’t like me. You don’t respect me. If I wasn’t Mickel’s daughter you would probably want me dead.”
Ree sighed, placing his hands in his pockets and thought about what she was saying. He gave her credit for addressing it.
“I think you’re guileful, Jayde…very manipulative…and I think you’re trickery at its best. And yes, I owe my life to your father, but I don’t want you dead. Now I have to go. We through here?”
Jayde laughed lightly.
“Yeah, we through.” Ree started out but she stopped him in his tracks with her next words.
“But you’re the same exact way.”
Ree spun around, a bit intrigued and challenged.
“Trust me Jayde, we’re nothing alike. Now where the fuck is Crush?” He said more to himself, starting toward the door again.
“Really? So you’re honest? You’re not calculating…trickery at its best?”
“Not at all,” he replied to her confidently, turning around in annoyance. He wanted her to know exactly what he was saying.
“Take E for example, how you handled him. On some set up shit but you deal with C. See that’s sideways shit. We don’t move the same.”
“I beg to differ,” she combatted, hearing footsteps in the distance. “But I’ll let you go. We can finish another time.”
Ree was feeling tested and he wanted to know what she thought she knew. He looked at her with a deadly stare.
“Speak on it.”
She swallowed hard and then pressed her lips together. Folding her arms across her chest, she stared back at him.
“Chris,” she spoke. Ree remained expressionless. “How would Tatum feel if she knew you were responsible for her brother’s death?”
“Listen to me. You don’t know what the fuck you’re-” A loud crashing of glass in the hallway caused Ree to turn and abruptly snatch the already cracked door open, Jayde right behind him. Ree saw nothing, but looked down and saw a broken white china cup and saucer, liquid, maybe water, and a tea bag. Her tea bag. He brought his head up and caught Tatum’s frizzy curls bouncing away as she ran.
“Tatum!” His voice based and it was deep, loud, and thundered the whole house. “Tatum, come back here!” He ran behind her, finally catching up in his swiftness in the left wing living room. He grabbed her arm and pulled her to him but she spun around swinging with tears drenching and completely covering her face. She knew. She fucking knew.
“Get off of me! You fucking monsterrrr!” She punched him repeatedly and Ree didn’t have to tide his temper. His guilt and fear of losing her overpowered any anger he could possibly have.
“How could you do this? How could you fucking do this to me! Why didn’t you just leave me alone! How could you?” Her cries were like howls, coming from the pit of her stomach. The pain of losing the only family she had left now being resurfaced. And it had been at the hands of the man she loved. She just knew Chris’ street ways had caught up to him and it was some miscellaneous bastard who took his life. But she shared her bed with him, she shared her bed with her brother’s murderer. And to think she was coming to apologize for what she’d said to him about his father.
“Tatum! Calm down! Listen….”
“Listen to what?” Just then Crush walked in on what seemed to be a disaster.
“Listen to you? You’re a fucking animallll!” Tatum covered her face with her hands, just wanting to die. Visions of Ree holding a gun to her brother and pulling the trigger, and then making love to her, drove Tatum crazy. She brought her hands to her hair and began pulling it roughly, chunks falling in her hands.
“Ughhhh!!!! I hate you! I fucking hate you! I wish I never fucking met you! You ruined…my…life!” She pointed her finger in his face and screamed it with certainty. Ree swallowed hard and stared at her, never had he felt bad about anything he’d ever done, any murder he’d ever committed, or any wrong doing he’d ever executed. But this was the worst feeling he’d ever felt. Hurting and betraying the person he’d loved most, and knowing he could lose her.
“Tatum…”
“Stop it. Just stop it, Ree! This is it. Don’t you see? The fucking leaving me for Jamaica! Trinity and all of her bullshit! This fucking battle I’ve been fighting with the streets, hoping you’d leave them! Your fucking masterplan! Her!” She yelled, pointing at Jayde. “That bullshit with Johnny, losing my babies. And now this. I am done! Just stay the fuck away from me! I should’ve never let you back in my life! I wish they would’ve locked you the fuck up where you belong, in a cage you fucking monster!”
Ree just stared at her solemnly, not even knowing what to say. She was telling the truth. He was. He had been selfish but with the purest of intentions to think he could avenge Chris’ deception and still be with his sister. He looked around and saw Jayde and Crush standing there in stun.
“We need to be alone.” They started to move.
“No! I don’t wanna be alone with you,” Tatum spat, staring at him like a madwoman. “You make my fucking skin crawl! I’m leaving you!” She dashed for the door, but Ree grabbed her and pinned her hard against the wall, holding all of his weight against her.
“Tatum, calm down! You’re gonna hear me out. I know you’re upset. But we’re gonna talk about this. And you’re not going anywhere. You’re my wife, and we took vows… I love you.”
“Ha!” Tatum hock spat in his face. “Talk about that. I’m getting a fucking divorce, now get the fuck off of me! You’re out of your fucking mind if you think I’m staying with you!” She went to move again but Ree grabbed her shoulders and slammed her back against the wall forcefully.
“No,” he based and demanded. He stared in her eyes and Tatum could see he was terrified for the first time ever. “Tatum…please,” he whispered. Ree never begged for anything in his life. He stared at her with pleading eyes. “I’m not letting you leave.”
She went to move again, but this time he gripped her arm with one hand and her neck tight with the other. Crush moved in.
“Boss…just…just let her cool down. C’mon boss...” He could see Ree was hurting Tatum in his forceful way of preventing her from leaving.
Tatum looked at him in disdain.
“What you gonna do, huh Sean? You gonna kill me, too?”
Ree tried to keep the eye contact, tried to connect with her in that way that only they could. But it was gone. Tatum had already left him, he could see it in her eyes. He loosened a little, but not enough for her to move, just enough to stop hurting her.
She pierced him with her glare and then she spoke slowly.
“Let…me…go.”
Their eyes were locked on each other’s for what seemed like an eternity. How could he expect anything different? She was gone. Ree knew he’d have to let her go. So he did, slowly.
Releasing his grip he took a step back as silence covered the room. Tatum’s body loosened limply, her chest heaving up and down in pain, hurt, anger. Pain, because the same hands that had made her body come to life, had taken the life of her brother’s. Hurt because he had betrayed her, looked in her face every day knowing what he had done to her. And anger, anger with herself, because ev
en after finding this out, she still loved him. She still couldn’t believe she’d be walking out of that door and out of her husband’s life. But she had to. Tatum lifted her right hand and was ready to smack him but she didn’t even have the strength. She just took that same hand, reached over to her left, and pulled her ring off, throwing it to the ground.
“I can’t save you. You’re the damn devil.”
And with that, she walked out. And he let her.
After a few moments of silence, Jayde sighed deeply.
“Oh my god, that was crazy. Ree I am so s-”
Jayde’s apology was cut short by the backhand blow to her face that sent her flying into the wall. A stream of blood sailed from her mouth in thin air and landed on the white paint.
“Boss!”
“Bitch, is this what you wanted? Is that what the fuck you wanted?” Ree hissed lifting Jayde’s body in the air with one hand gripped around her throat. Unlike when he held Tatum, he was trying to choke the life out of Jayde.
“Boss! Yo, chill. This is bad…that’s not a good idea. This is fucking bad.”
Crush hated Jayde, but she was connected. Very connected. And their business wasn’t over. He could not let Ree, a man who lived by not letting his emotions get him into compromising situations, make a foolish mistake.
“You killing her, Respect!”
The color drained out of Jayde’s face, but she refused to cry. She stared at Ree sternly.
“Is that what you wanted?” He repeated. She only shook her head no. Crush continued to pull Ree and plead for him to stop. On the brink of unconsciousness, Ree let her go. Her body fell to the ground with a thud. Jayde was weak, but she was still breathing.
The fact of the matter was he was upset at her, but it was his fault. She hadn’t made him kill Chris. He had done that on his own. He also considered how he had asked her to tell him what she knew. In a way, he invited it because he knew what she was insinuating. Still, he couldn’t help but to let her know what he thought of her at that moment.
“Dumb cunt.” He sneered down at her with venom in his eyes. She was scared, something she was not used to being. This was the Respect she had heard about and she knew he would and could kill her. Ree then looked to Crush. He was furious, moving like a Panther in the jungle and no one wanted to get in his way.
“Where’s the jet?”
Crush took a deep breath knowing what was happening. Ree was about to shut down and get back to business.
“It’s ready.”
Ree sighed and knelt down, picking up his phone and his keys which had fallen in the commotion and then he picked up Tatum’s ring. He held it in between his thumb and forefinger and twirled it around.
“Go after her, find out where she went. Make sure she’s alright… and report back to me.”
With nothing more said than that, he walked out. Crush knew out of everything he’d ever done for Ree, those last orders would forever be the most important. He had to find Tatum.
“Fuck you Sasha! You ain’t nothing but a dumb ass country bumpkin that thinks the fucking world revolves around you!”
– Neli, Thicker than Water
-13-
The jingle of the keys in the front door announced Sasha’s arrival. Aubrey immediately jumped down off the couch and ran to greet her.
“Mommy’s home! Mommy’s home!”
Sasha stepped in, a big smile on her face. Seeing her baby so excited for her always melted her heart.
“Hey Bri-Bri! How’s Mommy’s big girl? How’s Mommy’s girl?” She cooed.
“Mommy, me and Daddy made sketti and bread-tix!” Aubrey announced proudly.
“Sketti, huh?” Sasha asked, smiling at her and then up at Chauncey. She knew she meant spaghetti. Chauncey seemed preoccupied in between his phone and video game, but gave Sasha a half smile.
Sasha closed the door and locked it behind her, and then strolled over to him, her Dior sundress clinging to her shapely frame.
“And how’s Mommy’s big boy doing?” She asked, leaning down to kiss him.
“I’m straight.”
She pecked his lips and caught the hint of something. She couldn’t put her finger on it, the smell. Just when she was giving it good thought, her cell phone began to ring but she ignored it.
“Who’s that?” Chauncey asked. Sasha sighed.
“This fucking nurse from the hospital. She keeps leaving me messages about how she needs to talk to me because it’s important. It’s probably about the application I dropped off there but I told them I already accepted another offer, damn!”
Sasha all but forgot about the frivolous conversation she had shared with the nurse about Jayde, especially with all that had been happening.
“Why don’t you just answer it?” Chauncey questioned with a chuckle.
“Because…I don’t feel like it.” Sasha leaned down to kiss him again. Half because he looked so good, and the other half because she wanted to catch that scent again.
“Mommy, is it bath time?”
Ever since Aubrey had gotten the new bath time Dora, bath time was her favorite time.
“Yes, Bri-Bri, c’mon it’s bath time.”
“Yay!”
Sasha laughed as Aubrey led the way and she followed her mini me up the spiral stairs.
“No rubber ducky, you can’t fly!” Dora shouted, but only in Aubrey’s voice.
“Yes I can Dora,” the rubber ducky reputed before air sailing from one end of the tub to the other, landing in a splash.
“Aubrey, seriously? You know better. No throwing!”
“Sorry, Mommy.”
Sasha smiled and lathered up the small washcloth.
“Come here, little girl. You did know that we actually had to wash you while we’re in here, right?” Sasha drawled in her accent.
“Aw man!” Aubrey stated cutely. Just then she sent the duck flying again, this time out of the tub and straight to the wastebasket.
“Sorry Mommy!” She announced simultaneously with a grin.
Sasha raised a brow at her.
“Listen, just because you say sorry while you’re doing something doesn’t mean you can keep doing it, Aubrey. Now try me again,” Sasha laughed, still on her knees kneeling next to the tub and now reaching over to retrieve the duck. As she pulled it out of the trash, since it was wet, it caused something to stick to it.
Sasha immediately felt sick. So sick. There was only one reason, only one. And there were no excuses.
Pussy. That’s what he smelled like. Pussy.
So did he pick up my daughter from my aunt’s smelling like it? Because I know he ain’t crazy enough to fuck somebody with Aubrey here?
Sasha’s stomach churned and she wanted to die. But she was a mother.
“Let’s go, Aubrey.”
“Where we go, Mommy?”
“Out the tub. To…to your room, baby. Play with Dora in there.”
Sasha tried to fight her tears. Chauncey wasn’t shit. Never had been shit. She felt like stepping outside of her body, turning to herself and screaming, ‘Wake up bitch! He fucked your best friend repeatedly!’
“Are you okay, Mommy? Are you gonna cry?” Aubrey seemed so concerned. Sasha didn’t want to look at her or she would definitely cry. Because he would be destroying her too, he had destroyed their family.
“No…no Mommy’s….Mommy’s okay.” Sasha’s voice cracked. Aubrey poked out her lip.
“Mommy if you cry, I’m gonna cry too.”
Sasha was about to break.
“C’mon baby.” She scooped Aubrey up, placed her in a fluffy towel and brought her to her room. Turning on the TV and pulling out her toys, she stood by the door. Before closing it she told her.
“Aubrey, don’t come out okay? Even if Mommy’s yelling and Daddy’s yelling, just stay in your room, okay?”
Aubrey looked up worried, but slowly nodded. She didn’t want a fight to happen but she knew it was about to.
TTW 3 ( Thicker Than Water 3 ) Page 26
